Started in mid-2023, the recovery in domestic demand in Morocco strengthened in the third quarter of the current financial year, at +5% instead of 4.3% on average in the first six months, according to the latest statistics from the High Commission for Planning (HCP).
Despite the recovery in food prices having revived inflationary tensions, “the purchasing power of households would have maintained its positive trend, thanks to an increase in wage income”, explains the HCP in an economic update.
The increase in public transfers in favor of poor households and the improvement in external transfers would also have supported the increase in household income, subject over the whole of 2024 to the decline in activity in rural areas.
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Household spending, for its part, would have mainly benefited agri-food products, household goods and, to a lesser extent, agricultural products.
Overall, household consumption would have shown an increase of 3.2% in Q3-2024, contributing 2 points to the dynamic of overall economic growth.
As for investment spending, it would have supported activity in the 3rd quarter of this year, showing an increase of 9.6%.
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Given the prospects for growth in domestic demand and the gains accumulated by the decline in production costs beginning in 2023, private companies have increased their spending on industrial equipment, strengthening their recourse to bank financing and self-financing.
At the end of July and August 2024, the net flow of equipment loans granted to private non-financial companies would have increased by 8.9%, in annual variation. The movement of storage, on the other hand, would have been less significant, compared to the second quarter, contributing 0.4 points to growth.
